Aero120

Hopefully my comments will provide an alternative take on a warbird ARTF. Mine is a Reno Racer and so I've gone for performance. Whilst many full size warbirds are valuable classics and so are carefully cruised around at public displays to prolong their lives, I grew up near Rolls Royce Hucknall and vividly remember the sight and sound of their Spitfire being flown all out, howling at low level around the airfield and town. Its in bits now and being rebuilt at Filton so there's a lot to be said for the carefull approach taken by the BBMF and other owners of these classics! I've not done the maths, but even as the sound goes a high performance V12 can't be far off the "bangs per minute" from a healthy single cylinder two stroke. Hucknall is also the place where the Merlin met the Mustang and so in the year where aero engine testing is due to close at Hucknall, this model seems rather apt.

I've spoken with Kelvin and He's happy for me to add some stuff here regarding the Hangar 9 Mustang and in particular the "Miss America" version I'm building as I've already said its very similar to his Warhawk as far as construction is concerned so I won't repeat his comments but add a few of my own that hopefully will compliment this article. Here's a pic of my Mustang. I made the supporting tressle from central heating pipes and fittings

Hi Kelvin This is a great blog. Good photos too. I'd like to point out that this article is also very relevant to anyone wanting build the Hangar 9 Mustang. I've in the latter stages of building "Miss America" and apart from the wheels retracting differently, the construction is exactly the same. All of the servo mounts look like the same parts and hence are fitted by the same methods. 

The real point is that we do this for fun. If you want a pilot of whatever type then have one and if you don't then fine. It doesn't make the plane fly any better, unless the figure adds ballast! What you add to a scale model makes it a characature of the real plane. In the Spitfire shot above you can't see any panel lines, cowls fastners, paint scuffs, access flaps etc. The way to achieve a finish like that would be nice glossy iron on film and no detailing, but I doubt you'd get many compliments.

Surely the main thing is that the pilot matches the spirit of the plane. A scale WWII machine needs a suitable pilot either in WWII clothes or modern jet type if you're modelling a restored spit for example, however what harm does a freaky doll figure do in a fun fly? I've got a mixture in my planes. The default "grinning idiot" was soon ejected out of my Travelair in favour of a Gromit, whilst the Reno racing Mustang I'm building has an accurate latex type pilot with modern bone dome. I've also replaced the horrible blue dash sticker with a decoupaged photo of a real dash edited on the pc.

Graham, Two things spring to mind that don't seem to have been mentioned so far that I have found essential. The first is to get the heli set up for you. Many shops offer this as part of a deal and then at least you know the heli can fly. Even if you have to pay the cost should be offset by not crashing! Then carefully measure and record all the pitch settings and rotor speed etc incase you have to do a rebuild or want to change things as you progress. The second is use one of the excellent RC simulators available to practice. When it all goes wrong a touch of a button has you flying again in seconds, unlike real life. I've "painted" a simulator model to look like mine and used it to lead me onto the next stage. Initially when learning to hover then the translation into forward flight and now I'm practicing nose ins on the sim before I try it for real!